Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Housing

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Planning. The government promised to build 80,000 homes annually. However, the most recent data shows that only 52,854 homes were approved in the past year. The minister set the target. Why hasn’t the minister met it?

Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Attorney-General, Minister for Planning) (14:30): I thank the member for his question in his new shadow role. Perhaps first of all we will start with this: we know the way to make homes more affordable is to build more of them. We know on this side of the house that the Allan Labor government is about pulling every lever available to us to get the conditions right, to get the settings right, so that industry, local community and local government can get on, work together and build more homes for more Victorians, because we know when we build more homes we create more opportunities for Victorians, which is why the work we are doing is so important. The work we are doing to build –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, on relevance, Speaker, you cannot live in a pile of paperwork. The question is why you have not met the target of building 80,000 homes.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On the point of order, Speaker, there is no point of order. I ask that you rule it out of order straightaway so that the planning minister can get on with answering this question. If the opposition ask serious questions, then they should at least give us the respect of listening to the answers.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Sonya KILKENNY: In September 2023 it was this government that released our housing statement, and that statement set out the first suite of reforms – significant reforms, some of them the first in generations that we had undertaken to reform our planning system – and put into place a suite of reforms and plans that is going to drive the trajectory of increased housing for more Victorians. And we know that it is working. Victoria has been leading – top of the pops – the number of home approvals, home builds, for more Victorians. We are building on that. We are working to build more homes in the places that people want to live, in our activity centres. And why have we selected these locations? Because we know people want to live in them. What we know is that the numbers have been decreasing, and do you know why that is? Because Victorians cannot afford to live in these locations.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question – it was very narrow – about why they have not met the target of building homes, actual homes built.

The SPEAKER: I cannot compel the minister to answer the question, but the minister was being relevant to the question.

Sonya KILKENNY: The way you build more homes is you need to approve more planning applications. What we see from those opposite is that at every opportunity they are blocking homes, whether it is the member for Brighton or whether it is the member for Hawthorn – and I have seen you recently putting out your notices trying to discourage your community from supporting more homes for more Victorians. I put it to those opposite: how are they going to look those young Victorians in the eyes to say to them, ‘No, we don’t want you living in our neighbourhoods, in our areas. You are not good enough. You do not deserve to have the same opportunities that we had to find a home in the location of our choice, in a location where perhaps we grew up, close to family and friends, to the places where we went to school.’ It is the Allan Labor government that is going to provide those opportunities for young Victorians and enable them to buy or to rent a home of their choice and be able to lead the kind of life that they want to lead with the opportunities that they should have as well.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (14:34): Industry is warning Victorians that the government’s taxes and regulatory changes have resulted in uncertainty and delays and will continue to slow housing supply. Will the minister concede that Victoria’s punitive property taxes, now comprising 42 per cent of house and land costs, are hurting the housing sector and preventing Victoria from providing affordable housing?

Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Attorney-General, Minister for Planning) (14:35): First of all, I completely reject the premise of the question and also the information included in it. I cannot accept that. What I will say is that it is the Allan Labor government that recognises the need for increased housing opportunities for Victorians. We will pull every lever available to us. As those opposite know, it was only last year that we removed and granted concessions on stamp duty to assist and support industry to get on and build the homes that Victorians need and that Victorians deserve. We are setting a plan, a pathway to deliver those homes right across Victoria, particularly in established areas close to public transport and transport connections, because we know that is where Victorians want to be able to live and we know the way to make homes more affordable is to build more of them.